Keyless Ingition Warning

Most of us today drive cars and trucks post 1999.

Many newer cars are arriving with push button ignitions.

We have to remember to switch it off before exiting the car.

Pretty sad, no?

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MinuteKEY - Self-Service Key Machine

minuteKEY Introduction video from minuteKEY on Vimeo.


New machine is being released to the world that might make key duplication a simpler experience for consumers.
The minuteKEY self service machine is specifically designed to be simple and easy to operate, offering a limited array of home and office keys in standard brass or designer keyblanks.
This revolution in the key duplication market will change the face of the hardware/key duplication market, speed up consumer wait times and in all likelihood reduce costs as well.
It is my understanding that Walmart is soon to be trialling these in select stores.
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Crime Statistics Creve Coeur, MO February 2011

Pictured here is a map of the Creve Coeur, MO municipality and the statistics of crime reported in the source below. from the Creve Coeur Police Department.

The Creve Coeur Police Department is well known in the west county region for it's effectiveness on reigning in crime. They are a credit to their funding.

In February 2011, according to the picture here, there were 265 incidents reported to police.

These incidents include at least 200 alarm responses that police attended.

Police attended to 5 incidents where they wrote Breaking & Entering as the incident.

Police attended to 16 incidents where they wrote Property Crime as the incident.

Police attended to 39 incidents where they wrote Theft as the incident.

There are many reasons that crimes occur. Many of the incidents can be prevented by increasing your security preparedness.

An alarm system is one method, but prone to many false alarms. Police attend to monitored alarm calls, but there is usually a cost, borne by the homeowner or resident. Often police will allow 1 or 2 a year free, but regular false alarms add up to significant manpower hours, that are billed to residents.

Cost effective security products like door frame strengtheners and quality deadbolt locks are essential to improving the security of your properties. Often these small purchases can protect you and prevent crimes like break and enter.

Equally as important are key control systems. Key control systems, restrict the ability of authorized key holders to duplicate keys. Many incidents are happening because owners or managers are unaware of who may have a copy of their key. Preventing unauthorized access to your property significantly reduces crime of opportunity.

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Locksmith Scammers Caught and Indicted

UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

RICHARD G. CALLAHAN
United States Attorney

February 18, 2011
For Immediate Release

OWNERS OF FLORIDA LOCKSMITH SERVICE INDICTED IN SCAM TO OVERCHARGE FOR LOCKSMITH SERVICES

St. Louis, MO: The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that the owners of a Florida based locksmith service were charged in a superseding indictment on multiple federal charges involving a scam to overcharge customers for locksmith services, as well as employing and harboring illegal aliens.

According to the superseding indictment, Dependable Locks, Inc., headquartered in Clearwater, FL, managed a national network of locksmith technicians, operating from major population centers across the United States, including St. Louis. It also maintained a full-time staff of telephone operators and dispatchers, who were on duty 24 hours per day in Clearwater. The dispatchers received phone calls electronically forwarded from hundreds to thousands of telephone numbers listed nationwide for emergency locksmith services, all of which forwarded consumer calls to the call center in Florida. The dispatchers received the calls and the business dispatched locksmith technicians from the area of the call to respond. Many of the locksmith technicians working for Dependable Locks were aliens who were unlawfully present in the United States and were not authorized to work as locksmith technicians.

The indictment alleges that the locksmith company engaged in deceptive marketing by purchasing directory listings and advertisements in cities across the United States that identified the business to the public as a set of local locksmith companies. The company’s listings used multiple business names, local phone numbers and fake local addresses that had no affiliation with the company. Phone calls to the listed phone numbers were automatically routed to the company’s call center in Clearwater, Florida. In addition, telephone operators for Dependable Locks were instructed by managers to mislead customers to believe that they would be charged around $54 for a car lockout, while the responding technician was instructed by managers to charge up to $179 for a lockout. Technicians used techniques such as accusing the consumer who objected to the overcharge of "theft of services," threatening to call the police, withholding the customer's keys or driver's license to compel payment or following the customer to an ATM machine to ensure payment.

The locksmith technicians allegedly were allowed to split the profits of the fraudulently procured locksmith services with the company and were required to remit the company's share of the proceeds by regularly purchasing and shipping cash, checks and money orders to the Dependable Locks location in Clearwater, FL.

"After more than a year of following numerous leads with ICE and the Missouri Attorney General's Office, we are pleased to see this case continue to progress," said Postal Inspector J.R. Ball of the St. Louis Field Office. He added, "The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is vigilant in investigating allegations where the mail or postal products are used to conceal or further a crime."

DAVID PEER, Clearwater, FL; and ADAM OLIVKOVICH, address unknown, were indicted by a federal grand jury on one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, five felony counts of mail fraud, one felony count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for private financial gain and one felony count of engaging in a pattern of hiring unauthorized aliens. MOSHE AHARONI, Clearwater, FL, was indicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one felony count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens for private financial gain.

Conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000. Mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000. Conspiracy to harbor unlawful aliens for private financial gain carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a fine up to $250,000. Engaging in a pattern of hiring unauthorized aliens carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and/or a fine of $3,000 per alien. In determining the actual sentences, a Judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorneys John Sauer and John Ware are handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

As is always the case, charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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Xena - Padlock Alarms that are a cut above

Xena, a manufacturer of intelligent alarms that are portable, inexpensive and functional with the added ability of also being padlocks and other security devices are a new style product combining both physical and electronic security.

The many and varied uses for their products, augment well, an increasingly specialized market that demands quality and affordable products tailored at consumers desires to increase the security of their personal fixed and mobile applications.

The Bullet-Lock Alarm is a unique product that can be used on a multitude of applications.

I continue to be a skeptic of the value of alarm systems, however when a product comes along that incorporates both an alarm and a physical security product, I can only see a seldom seen combination that might actually improve the security of your property.

The Disc-Lock alarm, not only alarms your motor cycle, but actually prevents it cycle from being driven away.

A 110dB alarm, is often enough to attract the attention of onlookers, a hazard that potential burglars may see as a detriment to their chosen prey.

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While You Are Sleeping - Daring Burglars

Burglars are sometimes a crafty lot. They are indeed becoming more and more bold in their endeavors to outsmart residents.

Too often, many homeowners/residents who live with alarm systems actually leave the alarm switched off while they are at home.

Many may think, that a burglar is less likely to attempt malicious entry if someone is actually home at their chosen time of attendance. This is not so in the case of a Louisville KY resident recently.

Cheryl Effinger recently awoke to a disturbing revelation. Her home had been ransacked while they were sleeping. You see, they failed to arm their system upon going to bed. The bold burglars, broke through a downstairs door and caused damage and the loss of some very valuable home furnishings.

"We had turned it off," said Effinger, "because it would sporadically just go off."

Here in lies one of the problems with alarm systems. Many homeowners/residents are fooled into thinking that an alarm system is designed to protect them. Similarly to video surveillance systems, an alarm system cannot protect. An alarm system can only inform that a particular condition is occurring or has occurred.

You can pay a monitoring company to monitor your alarm system for a hefty monthly sum, but it does no good if it is switched off. In many precincts, the police, who attend to alarm calls for the monitoring centers, will invoice the homeowner for attendance, especially for false alarms. This adds to the real term cost of having an alarm monitoring contract. (something rarely divulged by an alarm system sales person)

Please dont be fooled by the alarm companies, especially when they use the closing sales spiel of 'your insurance premium will reduce by as much as 15%'.

Did you realize that the insurance companies and many alarm system providers are in cohoots? Insurance companies do offer some premium discounts if you have a monitored alarm, but rarely do they offer similar discounts for properly installed protective equipment, like good quality deadbolts, window security film or door frame strengtheners. Probably because they do not have an "arrangement" with protective equipment manufacturers.

Installing some of our products or similar, will greatly increase the physical security of your entries and likely thwart burglary attempts.

Often, locksmiths will provide obligation free security assessments with advice on methods to prevent attempted break ins. Yes, they can and do recommend products they stock and they often will provide expert advice on extra security prevention methods that are inexpensive/free.

For an obligation free assessment, contact your locksmith professional today!

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To Be Or Not To Be - A Safe

This interesting video in German (subtitled in English) shows exactly why you should purchase a quality safe from a quality specialist lock or safe provider.

Many similar models of the cheap safes found in the above video are widely available in big box stores including Home Depot, Lowes, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Best Buy and Costco.

After watching the above video, it is very apparent that many consumers, also here in the USA, may be dreadfully unaware that their new el-cheapo purchase will not perform the action for what is intended.

Many of these "safes" (I use the term loosely) are manufactured in countries that have no quality control or independent testing regimes.

If you are going to trust your valuables are secure, your cost is a serious consideration. Pay peanuts, and you will get monkeys!

Facecrook - Crimes Associated With Social Networking Sites Increases 7000%

Burglars are a crafty lot aren't they? It is becoming ever more apparent that Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites may be indirectly responsible for a spike in crime, that is unprecedented.

As the holiday season approaches, we all need to be much more vigilant in our approaches to personal and physical security.

According to an article in The Daily Mail in Great Britain...

"A Daily Mail investigation revealed this week that over the past three years, numbers of crimes associated with the networking site have increased by as much as 7,000 per cent in some areas — including cases of murder, rape, paedophilia, bullying, assault and burglary."

Police, insurance companies and IT security experts are so concerned that they have issued urgent warnings to users to be more vigilant about the personal information they post on the web. But all the evidence ­suggests that while the public isn’t growing any more internet savvy, the criminals are.

In spite of the warnings, Facebook users continue to tell their ‘friends’ when they are going on holiday; what the address of their party is; when their birthday is; what expensive items they have bought for their homes; and just how sexy they look in that new outfit.

Facebook has become a very popular method to inform friends (and enemies) of your movements. Criminals have been seen to exploit these mediums to gather intel on the movements of their victims.

When you post your status on Facebook, how sure are you that your network of friends are reliable and trustworthy?

In most cases, I suggest friend can be trusted, but remember that it takes just one loose lip to sink a ship.

In the source below, the article explains about some disturbing incidents of crime that have been attributed to status updates on Facebook.

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State Farm Insurance - Opinion On Best Door Locks

I read with interest an article (in the website listed in the source below), offering an opinion about the quality of various types of door locks and systems that enable better security in residential applications.

From the site...

Door Locks From a Burglar's Perspective

Burglars prefer to break into a home through a door because it is quick and easy.

A good quality lock is a deterrent. When intruders are interviewed about the selection of a target, many say seeing quality deadbolt locks will cause them to move on to another house.

A burglar can enter the home through a door using several methods:

• The door can be left unlocked.
• Doors can be kicked in.
• Door locks can be picked.
• Door locks can be hammered until they fall off.

St Louis Crime Rate #1 In The Country

The CQ Press just came out with its list of most dangerous cities in America.

St. Louis -- number one in the rankings!

True, there is always a lot of controversy surrounding this kind of report, from people saying things like, "I wish you wouldn't use our data this way; there are a lot of factors that go into crime," and other people saying things like, "It generates discussion, and that's healthy," to still other people saying things like, "While you were discussing this, I was robbed at gunpoint eight times!" So there seems to be a range of opinion.

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Crime Statistics Creve Coeur, MO 30 days to 11/11/10

Pictured here is a mud-map of the crime statistics for Creve Coeur, MO for 30 days ending 11/11/10.

Alarm Response - 163

Break & Enter - 7

Property Crime - 30

Theft - 52

Total = 252 Crimes.

We tailor our results to show just the four categories above. 

Facebook And Twitter Contribute To Rise In Property Crime

"Users of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been warned by police after two men were convicted of burgling a house whose owners had advertised the fact they were away."

Do you faceoff on Facebook? Do you Tweet? If you do, it is is perhaps important to know that your movements are being watched by many people.

Creve Coeur MO Crime Statistics 30 Days to August 18 2010

I reside in the town of Creve Coeur, MO. My town, like most other regions across the country is not immune to crime.

This month we report the latest statistics reported by the Creve Coeur Police Department.

Theft - 44

Alarm Response - 120

Break & Enter - 3

Robbery - 2

We display the incidents listed above. This does not include all incidents, but just an example of the types and quantities of incidents requiring police attendance.

The surprising high quantity of alarm calls includes fire alarms and burglar alarms. Many of these incidents may include false alarms, but this indicates that either the alarm systems may be faulty or people accidentally set off their alarms and did not call their security company to cancel.

The police do not attend for nothing. Often there is a significant charge to the resident for police attendance and fire service or emergency service attendance, on top of the already steep taxes we residents pay to these departments.

For precise locations of the incidents, click on the source.

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Crime Statistics - West St Louis County June 1-30, 2010

The map here represents crime incidents reported by St Louis County Police for the West County Precinct, for June 2010.

As usual, we are primarily concerned with Burglary, Robbery, Larceny.

There are 150 of these incidents reported to St Louis County Police in June.

It seems the higher rates of these crimes are appearing in Chesterfield, Manchester, Wildwood and Ballwin.

Crime prevention involves adequately securing your premises with suitable and correctly functioning products.

We prefer not to report the precise location of these crimes and if you want to know the block and street location of these crimes, please click the source.

We are regularly servicing both residential and commercial clients in the West St Louis County region, securing their properties, repairing faulty lock and door products and re-keying properties (to prevent unauthorised access).

We can help you with that sticky lock, that rubbing door or that sliding patio or pocket door that is hard to operate.

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Baldwin 5205 Lifetime Brass Entrance Set

• Lifetime Brass Finish
• ADA Compliant
• 2 Nickel Silver Keys (Large Head)
• $99.95

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Baldwin 8011 Double Cylinder Deadbolt

• Baldwin 8011 Deadbolt
• Lifetime Brass Finish
• 2 Nickel Silver Keys (Large Head)
• $69.00

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Sliding Patio Doors - One Of The Weakest Links

The above video is actually an explanation of how to replace a sliding door installation with french style doors but it does highlight the ease in pulling the common sliding door from it's tracks.

I am called upon often to repair sliding doors, that have become increasingly harder to operate. There are multiple reasons that doors can become inoperative, but we will leave that for a later article.

The reason I decided to include the above video here is to highlight the extreme weakness that almost all sliding patio doors suffer from.

You can see how easy it is to lift the door from it's track. When the door is closed, it is usually held locked by just a metal hook. Often that hook is all that is preventing the door from being opened. I have seen many instances where the sliding door is the principle method of surreptitious entry. Often intruders simply use a large screwdriver or prybar/crowbar (found in most automobiles) and lever under the bottom of the door, raising the whole door frame enough to remove the door completely from the track. Even while still locked.

There is a very simple and cost effective measure that can be applied to prevent most sliding doors from being removed in this fashion.

Simply, install a self-tapping screw into the top track, so that the head is protruding enough to allow the door to still slide but reduce the lift, or amount the door can be raised.

Some lock manufacturers include anti-lift pins in their locks to help with this problem, but often the parts are made from die-cast aluminum, which is weak and brittle.

For about 50 cents you can prevent the door from being lifted off it's track.

Many people insert a piece of dowel or length of wood into the track behind the door. While this is probably one of the cheapest and best methods for preventing the door from sliding open, it does nothing to stop the door from lifting up.

Latest Crime Statistics St Louis County May 31, 2010

Pictured below is the latest map of the reported crimes to St Louis County Police, as at May 31st, 2010.
Burglary - 195

Robbery -21

Larceny - 518

Arson - 4

Vandalism - 42

The green dots represent the above numbers.

If you live in these areas, it is worthwile to be aware of the local targets and your responsibility to secure yourself adequately.

We can help!

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Crime Statistics - Greater St Louis Region 3/1/10-3/31/10

We present a map of the crime statistics reported by participating cities in the greater St Louis area, for March 2010.

We have decided to only show Burglary, Larceny and Motor Vehicle Theft at this time.

For more accurate results, including street names please view the source.

There are about 300 total police reports.

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Crime Rate Comparison Statistics 63017 to 63146

Chesterfield, MO 63017 compared to Maryland Heights, MO 63146, crime rate comparison statistics in 2009.

Understanding that these two municipalities enjoy significantly different population sizes and per capita incomes, helps to explain some of the wider differences on the graph.

Because there are multiple different sources online for compiling statistics, it is important to verify this information for yourself. At the time of input, these statistics were presumed correct but can not be guaranteed.

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